Barrasso Discusses the Fiscal Cliff on CNN's "State of the Union"

Interview

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" this morning to talk about the fiscal cliff.

Below are key excerpts of the interview:

Status of a Fiscal Cliff Agreement:

"I've been in touch this morning with those involved in this. There is no deal yet. I continue to hope for a bipartisan agreement today. What we're seeing here is a monumental failure of Presidential leadership. The President is the only person with a pen to sign this, and it's the President's responsibility to work on something that the House will pass, the Senate will pass, and that he will sign, but he is outsourcing this. He continues to campaign and lecture when he ought to be focusing on the number one problem that hurts us as a country, which is our debt."

Tax Rates:

"We are fixated on an obsession level with increasing tax rates, and people across the board say this does nothing to deal with this spending problem that we have in this country. Nothing. He's fixated on what may help what fund the government for seven days a year, completely ignoring the other 358 days a year. You have to focus on really what's going to save this country, and we are not there. The President is doing nothing about the addiction that his administration and he has to spending. He's the spender in chief."

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"We're not there yet. We're trying to line up Rubik's cube right now. We're not there yet. We're going to be meeting later today. This is going to continue, I think, until on to tomorrow. My goal is to help keep tax rates down for all Americans. I think it hurts our economy if tax rates go up. That's why I'm very concerned for the future and the growth of our economy and jobs."

Debt Ceiling:

"Well, this morning CNN reported that's actually a political ploy by the President so he can blame Republicans. The President has now maxed out his credit card and he's going to want to raise that debt ceiling again. We hit that debt level tomorrow night. That's not included in any of this. So we're going to continue to focus on cutting spending."